A 4-year-old boy mauled by a pit bull at a Newhall apartment complex was recovering today.

The child suffered severe bites to the back of his head about 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Village Apartments in the 29000 block of Costa Brava, said Sgt. Darren Harris of the sheriff’s Santa Clarita Valley station.

“I had to take a piece of his head that literally, a piece of flap, and flap it back over,” neighbor Natasha Dunbar told KCAL9. “(I) told him `It’s going to hurt a lot baby. I got to do this.’ Flapped it back over, wrapped a towel around and just held the baby until the paramedics got there.”

Deputies isolated the dog as paramedics treated the boy before he was taken to Henry Mayor Hospital and then airlifted to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.

The dog’s owner was cooperative and turned the dog over to animal control officers, Harris said.